City of Pearl – Karen Traviss

Set in the near future where global warming has dramatically changed Earth, corporations control most of the seeds for crops. Humans have started to colonize planets far away from our system. The colony that was sent has not been heard from in a while, so a mission is sent to check on them. The only thing is it takes 75 years just to get there. Once there, humans are not welcome by the population already inhabiting the planets. This is the first book in the series, which gives the point of view that not all aliens are evil and sometimes the humans are the bad guys. Fascinating stuff. (submitted by SC)